UPS has announced plans to build 12 additional compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling stations and add 380 new CNG tractors to its growing alternative fuel and advanced technology fleet, with the total investment amounting to $100 million.
This investment is part of the company’s ongoing commitment to diversify its fuel sources and reduce its environmental impact.
“At UPS, we own our fleet and our infrastructure. That allows us to invest for the long-term, rather than planning around near-term fluctuations in fuel pricing,” Mark Wallace, UPS senior vice president global engineering and sustainability, said. “CNG is part of a broad investment in a variety of alternative fuel vehicles. Taken together, all of our alternative fuel vehicles represent 6% of the more than 100,000 UPS global fleet, and have driven a 10% annual reduction in use of conventional fuel.”
CNG is made by compressing natural gas to less than 1% of the volume it occupies at standard atmospheric pressure, UPS explained. The use of natural gas reduces greenhouse gas emissions six to 11%, according to the US Department of Energy.
The 12 new CNG stations will be built by TruStar Energy in Amarillo, Texas; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Columbia, South Carolina; El Paso, Texas; Fort Worth, Texas; Kansas City, Kansas; Phoenix, Arizona; Reno, Nevada; San Antonio, Texas; Tifton, Georgia; Trinidad, Colorado, and Willow Grove, Pennsylvania.
The new CNG tractors to be deployed in these cities will be manufactured by Kenworth while Agility and Quantum Fuel Systems will provide the CNG storage systems.
This $100 million investment builds on the company’s existing 18 CNG fueling stations in Alabama, California, Colorado, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia. UPS also operates CNG vehicles in Germany, the Netherlands and Thailand.
The company is aiming to cover one billion miles with its alternative fuel and advanced technology fleet by the end of 2017. It was one of the initial 13 leading companies to take the Obama Administration’s American Business Act on Climate Pledge, committing to reduce greenhouse gas emission intensity 20% by 2020.
UPS operates one of the largest private alternative fuel and advanced technology fleets in the USA. Its fleet includes more than 6,840 all-electric, hybrid electric, hydraulic hybrid, CNG, LNG, propane and light-weight fuel-saving composite body vehicles.
